Usage of Host Geek (referred to as “Host Geek” or “HG”) web hosting, stream hosting (shoutcast) and domain name registration services, is constituted by your agreement to these terms and conditions.

1. Service Signup

Upon signing up, your order will be processed upon passing of fraud checks. You are required to provide a valid e-mail address to be used for sending you important notices / and /or documents (invoices, support ticket updates, abuse complaints, etc.). We will not spam you with advertisements nor will we sell any of your information off to third parties. All information is secured and encrypted in our database for your protection! We will not be able to retrieve lost passwords. If you lost your password for cPanel you can submit a ticket to have it reset. Not valid e-mail addresses will result in account suspension!

2. Service Description and NO Warranties of Service

Host Geek provides web hosting services through either shared accounts, virtual private servers (VPS), or dedicated servers that are leased out or owned by us. Our services are used to store data, more specifically “Web Sites”, in order to transmit data or information “World Wide”. Host Geek actively denies and rejects responsibility for any of the data sent out.

While Host Geek attempts to bring you the highest quality hosting service possible, Host Geek has no warranties of service expressed or implied, including that made for a particular purpose. Host Geek is unable to guarantee the integrity of any data stored or transmitted VIA the internet or through our systems. Host Geek is not liable for any claims of damage by the customer, including, but not limited to, damage of loss of every nature, caused by the loss of data, or through the inability to connect to the internet, or through the inability to send and receive data. This includes but not limited to, the hacking of your website, hardware failures, server faults, deletion of your account due to software faults, etc. You are solely responsible for making your own backups so that this can be prevented. Backups can be obtained through cPanel’s account backup service. Whilst we run complete backups stored offsite monthly, we can make no guarantee that access to these will be possible.

3. Account Transfers

All account transfers through cPanel (depending on size) will be done, upon request, by submitting a ticket to our support department which will need to include the account details of the server (we ask you change your password prior to giving out information). We will try our best to ensure a smooth transition, however since every hosting company is different, there may be some transfers where it will be impossible to transfer. Host Geek will attempt in all ways possible to transfer your site(s). All transfers must be done within 30 days. Any requests after 30 days will be charged a one time fee of $14.95 for account migration.

4. Indeminfication

Customers shall Indemnify and hold harmless from all demands including, liabilities, costs, claims, liabilities, attorney fees against Host Geek, its parent company Geek Internet, or any of its affiliates, resellers, other customers, etc. This means that the Customer will not hold us responsible for any liabilities arising out of any injury to people, damage done or loss caused by the use of our services. Customers are responsible for all material supplied by Customers who infringe or are allegedly infringing to a third party. Host Geek is not required to compensate or refund by any means. All of our refunds are handled on a case by case basis.

5. Billing and Service Fees

Host Geek will bill you according to the timeframe you signed up with (Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, etc.). Monthly billing will be billed every 30 days, from the day you signed up, for all other payment terms you will be billed at the end of the period you have pre-paid. We will make every attempt to contact you which includes sending automatically generated invoice e-mails to remind you that you have outstanding balance to be paid; we may also phone you as a courtesy reminder if no response to emails is received and the account has past it’s due date.

All accounts not paid within 3 days from the due date will be suspended. A late fee of $15.00AUD will be applied to accounts which are late by more than 3 days. After 3 days and on up to 15 days, your account will remain suspended and you will be allowed to request backups during this time by ticket support request at a fee of $15.00 each backup. After 15 days your data is considered backed up, therefore granting us the right to terminate your account and you will still owe any late fees applied durning this. You must cancel properly.

All managed VPS, and unmanged VPS services will be suspended 24 hours after payment is due, and late payment processing fees applied 48 hours after the due date.

If 15 days after account termination your account remains unpaid all pending invoices will be followed up by our internal accounts department following this outstanding accounts may be turned over to a third party collections agency along with any legal fees and collection agency fees added to your pending invoice.

6. Refunds Policy

Host Geek guarantees all shared hosting services by up to 31 days. We’ll grant refund requests due to us not been able to provide our services according to the guarantee and providing you did not violate our Terms your refund will be generally processed within 5-7 business days of the request. We will not refund if your bandwidth has been exceeded or if your account is currently suspended / terminated due to a breach of our terms. We do not refund for the following:

- Dedicated IPs
- Setup Fees
- Transaction Fees
- Overages
- Late Fees
- Managed VPS Services
- Other addons, such as admin work, backup services, SSL certificates etc.

We uphold our responsibility under consumer law applicable within Victoria, Australia and will provide a refund should we be required to do so.

7. Cancellations

You must provide at least 7 days notice before the next scheduled billing DUE date in order to cancel your service or you will be liable to pay the full amount for the next billing period. In order to cancel, ALL prior balances MUST be paid. You will be requested to submit identification information for your security. Any outstanding debt after 30 days will result in account termination and amounts owed may be handed over to a third party collections agency.

ANY ABUSE TO ANY OF OUR STAFF WILL RESULT IN SUSPENSION / TERMINATION of your account with us. Please be nice so we can help you better.

8. Uptime SLA Agreement

The Uptime Service Level Agreement (Uptime SLA) is currently set at 99.9%. Any downtime occurring will result in a credit to your account for the amount of time down (not more than the total value of your account) where the fault is not preventable (eg: Hardware failure, server faults) for outages that are entirely preventable we’ll cover your next two months hosting at no charge. Things excluded in this Uptime SLA include; site hackings, downtime due to customer faults, errors in Apache or other such services which result in less than 10 minutes of downtime. We will notify you of all scheduled maintenance at least 5 days in advance and scheduled maintenance will not contribute to our uptime record.

9. Abuse Complaints

All Abuse complaints must be responded to within 24 hours. Failure to reply will result in either action taken on your behalf or service suspension or any other suitable remedy. Host Geek reserves the right to remove content not adhering to local, state or federal laws.

10. Terms May Change at Any Time

These terms and conditions may change at any time. It is up to the customer to check upon these terms whenever necessary. We will attempt to notify you if major changes do happen to occur that would affect you.

11. Domain Name Registration

Host Geek is an Authorised domain name reseller authorised by the Australian Domain Name Authority and it’s registrars. All Australian (.au) domain names registratants must agree to this .au Agreement. All .au domain name transfers are offered free of cost if the domain name is more than 3 months from expiry. If the domain name is due to expire in 3 months or less the normal renewal fee applies and will the domain will be renewed for a further 2 years from the existing expiry date.

.au domains registration requirements.

com.au and net.au

To register a com.au or net.au domain you must:

• be a registered business or company in Australia; or
• hold an Australian trademark; or
• be licenced to trade in Australia

The domain name must match or be an acronym or abbreviation of the registrants business name, or must otherwise be closely and substantially connected to the registrant.

org.au

org.au domains are reserved for non-commercial organisations and charities in Australia

To be eligible for a org.au domain name, you must be:

• an association incorporated in any Australian State or Territory; or
• a political party registered with the Australian Electoral Commission; or
• a sporting or special interest club operating in Australia; or
• a charity operating in Australia; or
• a non-profit organisation operating in Australia

The domain name must match or be an acronym or abbreviation of the registrants business name, or must otherwise be closely and substantially connected to the registrant.

id.au

To register a id.au domain name you must:

• be an Australian citizen or resident

12. Acceptable Use Policy

Further to these Terms & Conditions all customers are to adhere to our Acceptable Use Policy, which can be accessed here.

13. Affiliate Terms & Conditions

Any affiliate account activated and made available to you will be provided only if you agree and understand our Affiliate Terms & Conditions available here.

14. Host Geek SMS Notification Service – General Terms & Privacy

1. Host Geek will only collect Personal Information where the information is necessary to provide customer requested services or products, this information is volunteered by the customer during the registration process, in subsequent requests made to the user, and by the users ongoing use of the services offered by Host Geek.
2. Host Geek will take reasonable measures to ensure that the personally identifiable information from its members and customers collected remains secure including ongoing maintenance and monitoring of its servers and security systems.
3. UNSUBSCRIBING: Host Geek’s SMS Notification service is provided for your benefit, should you wish to unsubscribe email support@hostgeek.com.au including your mobile number and the word UNSUBSRIBE in the subject line.
4. 4. By subscribing you agree to receive SMS messages from Host Geek that include: Service Notifications, Billing Notifications, Support Notifications or any other notification that directly relates to your products / services.
5. The service and the content and materials received through the service are proprietary to us or our licensors, and is for your personal, non-commercial use only.
6. This service is available only in Australia.
7. You represent that you are the owner or authorised user of the mobile service number you provide to Host Geek.
8. If you have any questions or need help email admin@hostgeek.com.au
9. Host Geek’s SMS Notification service is a FREE service and you agree to disolve us of any costs charged to you by your mobile service provider for the delivery of standard SMS messages sent from Host Geek.

Last updated: 29-AUGUST-2011